The government is set to invest $7.6 billion pesos in improving access to drinking water in rural and impoverished areas in Colombia over the next 10 years
The National Council of Social and Economic Policy (CONPES) has announced that it will use the money to guarantee safe drinking water to an additional 1.8 million citizens and to provide better solutions for managing wastewater to a further 2.5 million people.
Of the money to be invested in the project, $2.3 billion pesos is set to come from the central government, and $5.3 billion from local government funding, including funds from the royalties system which distributes oil, gas and coal profits.
“The decision is aimed at improving the health and living conditions of Colombia’s rural population, reducing the poverty gap between the urban and rural zones and increasing the equality between the regions as a government priority,” said the director of the National Planning Department (DNP), Tatyana Orozco.
The DNP, which has a hand in public and economic policy in Colombia, is also coordinating a larger project aimed at transforming the Colombian countryside.
In a report, the DNP said that extreme rural poverty is on average 3.2 times worse than urban poverty.
